European Championship: Sarana beats Korobov, takes the lead

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
3/12/2023 – For the first time at the 2023 European Championship, Anton Korobov is not at least sharing the lead. The Ukrainian GM was defeated by Alexey Sarana, who thus climbed to sole first place in the standings. Now sharing second place with Korobov on 7/9 points are six more players: Etienne Bacrot, Benjamin Gledura, Kirill Shevchenko, Andrey Esipenko, Valentin Dragnev and David Paravyan. | Photos: European Chess Union
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Eventful

Following a rather quiet eighth round on the top boards of the European Championship, an eventful ninth day of play saw six games from the top ten boards finishing decisively, with only two of the four draws lasting less than 30 moves. Importantly, former sole leader Anton Korobov lost his first game of the event, as he was defeated by 23-year-old Russian grandmaster Alexey Sarana.

Among the twenty-seven players who entered the round on 6/8, a full point behind the leader, five managed to collect wins and climb to shared second place — i.e. Andrey Esipenko, Kirill Shevchenko, David Paravyan, Etienne Bacrot and Valentin Dragnev.

As we pointed out in our round-8 report, reaching 8 points by the end of the 11-round tournament guarantees a spot in the World Cup, while 7½ points are not a guarantee but are likely to also make it into the qualification spots. This means that those who currently stand on 6/9 might feel compelled to play for a win in Sunday’s round, with some of the rating favourites belonging to that group.

Kirill Shevchenko

Current Romanian champion Kirill Shevchenko defeated Vitaliy Bernadskiy in round 9

 
Sarana, Alexey26681–0Korobov, Anton2658
EICC 2023
Vrnjacka Banja11.03.2023[Besenthal,Klaus-Günther]
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 c5 5.Bxb4 cxb4 6.e3 b6 7.Bd3 Bb7 8.Nbd2 0-0 9.0-0 a5 10.Re1 d6 11.e4 Nc6 12.Nf1 e5 13.Bc2 Rc8 14.Rc1 g6 15.Ba4 Qe7
In this position White decides to give up his e4-pawn, the best possible continuation: with his strongly positioned heavy pieces, White's main concern is to open up the central lines. 16.Ne3! 16.d5 Nb8= yields nothing. 16...Nxd4 17.Nxd4 exd4 18.Qxd4 Now no black rook can get to e8. Nxe4 18...Bxe4?? 19.f3+- 19.Ng4
White first sets up a mate threat - with a board full of pieces. 19...Qg5! This not only covers the threat of Nh6, but also prevents Rxe4 due to the attack on the c1-rook. 20.Bd7! This bishop is now in the thick of it. Rc5! The best move, as you can see in the variation with 21.h4. 21.Rcd1 21.h4 would have been strong in some other variants, but is not enough here. Qd2 22.Nf6+ Kh8 23.Qxd2 Nxd2 24.b3 Rd8 25.Ba4 Rf5 The active rook gives Black sufficient counterplay. 21...h5 22.Rxe4 hxg4 23.Rxg4 Qe5 24.Qxd6 Now White actually has an effective extra pawn. Qxd6? Better was 24...Bc8! 25.Qxe5 Rxe5 26.Bxc8 Rxc8 27.Kf1 b5 28.cxb5 Rxb5 White's advantage in this double rook endgame is small - the b6-pawn has not been lost. 25.Rxd6 Rd8 26.Rgd4 Kf8 27.Bb5 Rxd6 28.Rxd6 Be4 29.Rxb6
A second pawn is gone. 29...Bd3 30.Rb8+ Ke7 31.b3 Bb1 32.Ba4
32...Re5 32...Bxa2 33.Re8+ Kf6 34.Re1 Re5 35.Rc1+- There is a threat of c4-c5 or - after some preparation - Ra1. 33.f4 Re1+ 34.Kf2 Rc1 35.Re8+ Kd6 36.Re1 Rc2+ 36...Rxe1 37.Kxe1 Bxa2 38.Kd2 Bb1 39.g4 is also winning for White. 37.Re2 Rc3 38.Rd2+ Kc5 39.Be8 f6 40.Rd5+ Kb6 41.Rd6+ Kc5 42.Rd5+ Kb6 43.Rd2 Kc5 44.h4 Be4 45.f5!
With this pawn sacrifice White turns his h4-pawn into a passed pawn. 45...gxf5 45...Bxf5 46.h5+- 46.h5 a4 47.Bxa4 f4 48.Re2 Bxg2 Of course, White does not capture this bishop. 49.Bd7 Bf3 50.h6 Bxe2 51.h7 Rc2 52.h8Q Bg4+ 53.Ke1 Rc1+ 53...Bxd7 54.Qh7 Rc1+ 55.Kd2+- 54.Kd2 Rd1+ 55.Kc2 Rxd7 56.Qxf6 Bd1+ 57.Kc1 57.Kc1 f3 58.Qf8+ Kc6 59.Qc8+ Kd6 60.Kxd1 1–0

Standings - Round 9

Rk. Name Pts.  TB1 
1 Sarana Alexey 7,5 0
2 Korobov Anton 7 0
3 Bacrot Etienne 7 0
4 Gledura Benjamin 7 0
5 Shevchenko Kirill 7 0
6 Esipenko Andrey 7 0
7 Dragnev Valentin 7 0
8 Paravyan David 7 0
9 Kourkoulos-Arditis Stamatis 6,5 0
10 Abasov Nijat 6,5 0
11 Nguyen Thai Dai Van 6,5 0
12 Svane Frederik 6,5 0
13 Grandelius Nils 6,5 0
14 Santos Latasa Jaime 6,5 0
  Azarov Sergei 6,5 0
16 Subelj Jan 6,5 0
17 Predke Alexandr 6,5 0
18 Gelfand Boris 6,5 0
19 Kadric Denis 6,5 0
20 Gumularz Szymon 6,5 0
21 Kuzubov Yuriy 6,5 0
22 Parkhov Yair 6,5 0
23 Vocaturo Daniele 6,5 0
24 Svane Rasmus 6,5 0
25 Guliyev Namig 6,5 0

...484 players

All available games - Round 9

 
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Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.
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